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joewein.de LLC
fighting spam and scams on the Internet
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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam
The so-called "419" scam is a type of fraud dominated by criminals from Nigeria and other countries in Africa. Victims of the scam are promised a large amount of money, such as a lottery prize, inheritance, money sitting in some bank account, etc.
Victims never receive this non-existent fortune but are tricked into sending their money to the criminals, who remain anonymous. They hide their real identity and location by using fake names and fake postal addresses as well as communicating via anonymous free email accounts and mobile phones.
Keep in mind that scammers DO NOT use their real names when defrauding people.
The criminals either abuse names of real people or companies or invent names or addresses.
Any real people or companies mentioned below have NO CONNECTION to the scammers!
Read more about such scams here or in our 419 FAQ. Use the Scam-O-Matic to verify suspect emails.
Click here to report a problem with this page.
Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:
- This email uses a separate reply address that is different from the sender address. Spammers use this to get replies even when the original spam sending accounts have been shut down. Also, sometimes the sender addresses are legitimate looking but fake and only the reply address is actually an email account controlled by the scammers.
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "FBI AGENT" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <james_obus@yahoo.com>
Date: Mon, 18 Aug 2014 07:27:05 -0500
Subject: FBI
ATTN: BENEFICIARY,
This is a notice to you from the office of the
Federal Bureau of Investigation here in Farming ton Connecticut
USA.Following our investigations by our monitoring team we are pleased
to inform you that the sum of 8.5 Million USD is to be remitted to you
from our escrow account with the BANK OF AMERICA. You are to stop
further communications with anyone regarding your unpaid funds as you do
not have any business with those imposters anymore.
your funds have been ensured to its full value making it impossible for anyone to lay hands on it.
You are to get back to us so we can proceed with the transfer of your total funds of 8.5 Million USD to you.
Full Names
Home Address
Direct Tel
occupation
age
gender
Do get back to us with the needed informations so we would advise you on how to get your funds.
Sincerely
Mr. JAMES OBUS.
FBI.FARMING-TON DISTRICT
CONNECTICUT
USA.
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Anti-fraud resources: